“Nobody’s Going to Do Things for You”: ktwheels on Building a Tour From Scratch

Words by River Epperson | Photos by Regan Jones and Video by River Epperson

Chicago-based independent musician Katie Wheeler, known professionally as “ktwheels,” recently completed her first tour across the Eastern US in April of this year. Contributor River Epperson traveled with Katie and the band as their tour photographer, documenting the tour via photo and video. They sat down together in a dive bar on the north side of Chicago to reflect on the experience of touring as a completely independent artist. 

Sound Stage: Thanks for sitting down with me today, Katie! 

Katie: Thanks for having me! It’s always good to see you.

Sound Stage: I start most of my interviews off with this question: If you had to describe the sound of ktwheels in five words, what would they be? 

Katie: Fun, lit, cool… Okay, I’ll be serious. I feel like what I'm about to say is an oxymoron, but bear with me. Crunchy, Smooth, Familiar, Offbeat, and Energetic. I like to think that my music is familiar in some way, because of the indie rock sound, but then there’s also something surprising that makes the listener go, “Whoa, wait, what?”

Sound Stage: What musicians and sounds are your biggest inspirations? 

Katie: Madison Cunningham, Fiona Apple, Courtney Barnett, Soccer Mommy, old Snail Mail… I think those are my core five. And Becca Stephens. No one knows who she is, but she’s a killer musician. She’s one of those people where I don’t understand what she’s doing on the guitar. Unbelievable. Oh, and Hayley Williams, obviously.   


Sound Stage: If you were going on a headline tour and needed to fill out the bill, what acts or musicians would you fill it out with?

Katie: Oh, I don’t know… I’m not one of the big shots yet. Can I talk about who I want to open for instead? I would love to open for any of those artists.  I would absolutely love to open for Madison Cunningham; that is obviously the number one dream. Don't give me a headline tour; in the grand scheme of the industry, I’m still a nobody. I want to open for some badass musicians.

Sound Stage: How long have you been gigging as a musician in Chicago?

Katie: I started gigging shortly after I moved to the city in 2023. I’ve played with various original and cover bands. I’ve played with another band called Junior Miss since 2023, and then started ktwheels at the end of 2024. So it's fairly new. 
I’ve really just been playing as ktwheels throughout 2025 and up until now. 

Sound Stage: Did you play with any other bands before moving to Chicago? 

Katie: Yes, I played in bands while I was in college at Indiana University in
Bloomington, Indiana.  I had my own band with my friend Cat, and we played some venues around there. I technically did start ktwheels in the summer of 2023, after I graduated, but I only played one show. Nothing sounds the same. 
I mean, “Departure” pretty much sounds the same, but the other songs sound totally different.

Sound Stage: What are some of the challenges that come with booking shows at Chicago's independent music venues?

Katie: One difficulty is that I don’t have a huge following; I'm kind of just hoping people take a chance on me. 
So the hardest thing is getting venues to respond, basically, and there are some venues that are easier than others. Actually, probably the hardest part, once you get the venue to say yes, is making the show happen and finding other bands to fill out your bill. And diversifying the bills so you're not playing with the same bands all the time, so you're hopefully getting in front of new people. It can be really hard and taxing to put bills together for shows. I would say that's the hardest part.

Sound Stage: When you contact a venue about booking, is there some sort of package or resume you send out? 

Katie: Yes, great question. You want to keep your booking emails very to the point. People don't have time for shit, right? 
So I'll say, “I'm Katie with ktwheels, we play indie rock in Chicago…” If it's relevant, sometimes I'll drop a recent show and how many tickets I've sold. Otherwise, I'll just keep it at that. 
I'll say, “I'm looking at these dates…” and give them a range of dates, and then I'll have links. I'll give them a link to a live video or a song, a streaming service, Instagram, my website, and then I'll have my EPK, which is the electronic press kit. That has all of that information in one spot for them to look at. 

Sound Stage: You touched on this when we were in the car together, probably somewhere in Pennsylvania… You mentioned something about Chicago having a rule about not playing within a certain time or distance of yourself? 

Katie: Radius Clause. It’s called a radius clause. Not every venue has it. But the extent of a radius class is, you're not supposed to play a show within a certain distance of the venue within a certain amount of time, usually ranging anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. Sometimes it can be as long as 8 weeks or 6 weeks.

Radius clauses truly make sense, though, because the more you play, the less of a draw you have. If I play a show on Thursday, and then the following Friday, I play another show. People aren't going to come out to the Thursday night show. 
They're only going to come out to the Friday show. And then that doesn't really build a good rapport with the venue. I mention that because Cleveland does not have a radius clause, and the two bands we played with were playing another show together two days after ours, on a weekend. And because of that, we probably didn’t have as big a draw… 

I used to think, “Oh, that's dumb…” But now I get it. And I'm kind of into not playing as many shows, just so that the ones that I do play feel really good and special, and there's more people there, and I can build up a bigger rapport, I guess, with venues that way.

Sound Stage: So then, in your experience, given what you said about a radius clause and trying not to gig very often in order to have a higher draw, would you say that being an independent musician in Chicago is something that you can sustain yourself on as a career with a livable wage?

Katie: No. I mean, maybe that's true for some musicians, but I'm not there yet. Let's talk numbers for a second. For a Beat Kitchen show that I played, we sold 83 tickets, which is pretty great. Cobra Lounge, our tour send-off, did not have as much of a draw as I thought it was going to get, personally. A lot of my people who were going to come were not able to at the last minute, so I didn't have nearly as big a draw as I thought I was going to. But there were still a lot of people there. 
And I think that's also because of Emma (Good Eve), and Natalie (Prairie Scout), right? So I played into the strategy of bringing in people that I know, who have different audiences than me, to diversify my own audience.

So, at Beat Kitchen, we sold 83 tickets, and at Cobra Lounge, we sold 78. Anyway, these venues typically take anywhere from $200 to $400 of those ticket sales to pay their people. I saw the breakdown from one… the ticket sales grossed around $1,000. 
After the venue took their cut and their fees, it was left with like $540 some-odd dollars to split between 3 bands. So my band made $180. Which, honestly, isn’t even bad, but that’s also not even ¼ of the gross sales. And then I need to pay my band, there are 4 of us. 
So, unless you're selling a ton of tickets or you're in a spot where you're able to make a deal with the venue to make a flat cut, which, unless you're able to sell a ton of tickets, you're probably not going to be able to be in that spot. And also take into account, you're not playing shows every week because you need to have a big draw. So that's $180 every few months when you play a show, split 4 ways, which is not a sustainable salary at all.

I don't typically take anything of that cut. 
I'll just split that between my band, and then I'll take merchandise sales. 
But that's kind of a newer thing. Either way, before, I would just take a lesser cut so I could pay my band members at least $50 each. I’m honestly fortunate that we’re still netting a profit here in Chicago. I have friends in New York City who lose hundreds of dollars a show because it’s a completely different market.

​So, no, the short answer is that being an independent musician in Chicago is not sustainable on its own. Especially not when you're only a year into it. 
Maybe ask me that question again in 10 years, and see if I've got a different answer for you.

Sound Stage: With the Chicago music scene not being sustainable on its own, what exactly drove you to the idea of a tour? 
Was it the idea of possibly making more money?

Katie: (Laughing) No… I've always wanted to do it, right? I think a lot of people I like feel that way. And part of the reason why I just started going balls-to-the-wall with the ktwheels project is… well... I'm in my mid-twenties now. I gotta just fucking do it, you know? Nobody’s going to do things for you. No one's going to tell me what to do, or hold me back at the same time. If I want to do something, I could do it. But then I also have to do it. 
So I've kind of been in the “I'll just do it” mindset. 

I have a lot of friends in New York City, so I think that was one of  the biggest things: I wanted to be able to play a show for my friends in New York. But how do I get there? Because the tour originally started as one show, I was going to play there with my friend Cat with her band, and then I was like, I'll just make a tour on the way out because it doesn't really make sense to drive 5 people all the way to New York for one show. And then drive all the way back. So that's why I was thinking, let's just make a tour out of it.

But then by December, I already had a few dates lined up, and then Cat told me she booked a different tour and wouldn’t be able to play a show in New York with me.  So then I was like, “Okay…. yeah, I guess this is just my own tour.” 
And now I'm just going to play a show in New York on my own. And now I gotta just do this on my own. There was a hot minute, though, like in December when I was thinking, “Do I keep doing this?” I had my own insecurities about, “Oh, people won't come see me…. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Which isn't true. 
But then I decided, no, I need to do it just to prove to myself that I can do it. And then things finally started lining up more… Well, it took a lot of work to make everything line up.

Sound Stage: How long did it take you to plan the tour?

Katie: I got the idea when I saw my friend Cat, when we were both in Indiana at the end of September. So then I started sending emails by mid-October, but I didn't get any sort of response until December. No one responded to me in the fall. Well, okay, I got a few rejections, actually, from Indiana venues. I think it was December before I got my first date, and it was in Cleveland. 

When you book, you have to give them around a 2-week range of dates, so I had to literally say, “Okay, I can play between April 14th and April 25th.” So then, Cleveland told me, “We can offer you Thursday the 16th or Friday the 17th of April.”
And personally, I didn’t want to play Cleveland on a Friday night because my original plan was a few dates, and then we'll play New York on a Saturday. And it didn't end up being that way because it's hard to book a tour. 
You’re just hoping that venues have the dates that you want... and haven't already booked somebody out. But everything ended up lining up.

I really started like locking in on following up and sending so many emails in January. I was so annoying in February. Philadelphia probably hated me, and I wasn't even able to book a show there. This one venue responded to me… and then ghosted me for like 3 weeks. And then I ended up getting DC on the 18th. 
And then Philly told me they could do the 19th, but I didn’t want to do 5 shows in a row. We need a break, you know? So that's why Philadelphia didn't happen. To sum things up, I started planning it in October, 
and like really just went fast-and-furious at the beginning of the year.

Sound Stage: What part of the booking process surprised you the most?

Katie: Honestly, the fact that, even though I don't have any sort of following, venues actually said yes to giving me a show. I even had this one venue in DC, where it was my bad for sending them an email. They were like this huge 700-seat capacity venue that I didn't look into because I'm just sending so many emails, not really checking out all the venue details. They still responded! They said, “Hey, we really like your music, what's your draw around here?” I had to respond and say, “Oh, I'm so sorry this isn't gonna work, my bad.” But it felt good to get a response from them. I think what surprised me was the number of responses that I got. I was expecting it to be really bleak, but it wasn't as dire as I thought.

Sound Stage: For all of the different shows you played, there were different local bands and acts that filled out the bill.  Did you pick them? Did somebody else choose them? 
How did that come about? 

Katie: Most of them I picked, and I had to go about getting most of the bills together. That's kind of like standard anytime you book a show, and you're the one sending the email, you gotta find the people to play with. You gotta make it happen.

So most of the time I was just looking up bands on the internet, or asking people that I know in different cities for bands to play with. I played with someone from Detroit last April, so I hit him up, and I said, “Hey, I need recommendations for people in Detroit to play with.” He gave me some, and I found some others on Instagram. And then, in other places, I worked with a promoter, and they did all that work for me. That was New York and Pittsburgh; I had to work with a promoter there. 
For the other shows, I found the bands myself and reached out to them. That is probably my least favorite part of the process, messaging a bunch of people and bothering them...

I also should say, I love getting to play with and getting to meet new musicians. It's not that part. It's the taxing thing of doing it all yourself. I’m doing everything myself, and then I have to offer somebody a show to play on. And sometimes I think, “Where are the people offering me shows?” 
But I know my time will come. I'll be that person for a bit who offers people shows and just hopes that it comes back around. It'll come back around, eventually.

Sound Stage: You released two singles, “Mechanical Being” and “Does She Know,” at the beginning of the year. Was the idea to tour in an effort to promote the songs?

Katie: That ended up just being a coincidence. I worked with the PR team for the first time, which is why I released those singles on that timeline in January and March. Honestly, I probably would have done it differently if I didn't work with them, but I was only paying them for a certain amount of time.

Sound Stage: What did you think about working with a PR company?

Katie: You know, I don't know if I would do it again. 
I loved the PR team that I worked with, but I probably would try to work with a different one, maybe a Chicago-based company or something. I did get a cool feature in a bigger indie music magazine… It was also a playlisting campaign. But playlists aren't necessarily fans; they're just kind of passive listeners. So I have a lot of streams because of that, but I don't think I've gained consistent listeners. Maybe I'll have some listeners that come back from the campaign, but I'm kind of ready to have those numbers die down and just have my organic listeners on my monthly numbers.

Sound Stage: What’s next for ktwheels? 

Katie: I get to open for Buffchick at Martyrs’ in Chicago on May 29th, which I am so excited for. It's been one of my goals for a while now to open for an out-of-town act. 
And also, I love her music, and I think it's a really good fit that I get to open for her. I'm super pumped for that. Then I'll have another couple of shows in July and August. Besides that, I'm going to write more. I really want to practice playing guitar and writing lyrics because I'm hoping to have new music released next fall. Which means I gotta write it now and then record it early next year.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Buffchick’s show at Martyr’s has been canceled. Ktwheels will resume playing shows later this summer. 

Sound Stage: How did you end up booking the Buffchick show? 

Katie: I think I initially left a TikTok comment. I said, “Hey, if you need an opener for Chicago, blah, blah, blah….” 
I don't know if it was the comment, because when her tour was announced, I went to her Instagram and found her management and emailed them. So I don't know which way it panned out… because then I got a DM on Instagram, around a month ago, that said, “Hey, are you free to open for Buffchick at Martyrs’ on May 29th? Their agent specifically requested you…” So I don't know if they saw my email, or if it was the comment, I have no idea.  It was a promoter who DM’ed me, and they said that they couldn't find my email, which is even more confusing. I don't think they looked that hard… I've put my email address on my Instagram account now, so you can press the email button. The booking request was in my DM requests… What if I didn't check that? 
And what if I missed my opportunity? Always check the requests.

Sound Stage: So, to start wrapping things up: What was your favorite part of the tour? 

Katie: 100%, it was getting the chance to travel with my band and you, River. The camaraderie we had was honestly so special, and getting to play in front of new audiences was also great, which sounds so cliche… Getting to spend time with everybody and form more solid relationships was awesome. I definitely feel closer to my band now, which feels great. Before this tour, the longest amount of time I had spent with Matt [bass] was two hours. And now we know each other really well, which I’m very thankful for. 

Sound Stage: I feel like I know your band a lot better now, too. Before going on the road, I think I had only talked to Matt twice, and Alvin and Tommy [guitar/drums] a handful of times, and now we have so many great memories together… 

Next time you plan a tour, is there anything you would do differently? 

Katie: I would try to find a university gig to play because those actually pay. I probably would try to find more house shows to play; those were so awesome. And I would definitely get a toll pass on my rental car, you live, and you learn.

That’s kind of it. I think that Airbnbs are kind of the way to go. I know there's a little bit of those grassroots connections that I feel like I didn't get because we didn't stay at random people's houses, but also that feels so impossible to coordinate for 5 individual people. Well, it seems insane. And there's no way I would’ve gotten good sleep, and we all would've probably gotten sick. I think the only other thing I would’ve changed was finding a way to keep us together in NYC. We split up to save money, but it really split the tour into two different experiences, not having all of us together in NYC.

Sound Stage: If you had to live in one of our tour stops other than Chicago, what would it be?

Katie: Pittsburgh. It was such a cool city, and I wish we could have explored it more. Maybe New York, but I’m not sure I could live there full-time. It’s so expensive, and there’s so much going on. Chicago is truly the perfect place for me.

Sound Stage: Which tour stop was your favorite to play? 

Katie: Washington, D.C., that was like the biggest surprise ever, playing at that giant mansion. Truly the coolest experience in my life. We played at this awesome house show in D.C., at a place called Scooby Doo Mansion. And it's a secret spot, it's been a community space for decades, and people show up to go to shows just because they’re at the house. 
So before the show even started, we sold out all 75 tickets, and then some extras at the door. Which was awesome, and we got to play a show to a room full of people that were there to listen, and they were fully engaged, which I don't think I'd ever experienced before then. 
That was really awesome. And because it's a house show too, they couldn't take a cut of the ticket sales, which means we got to walk away with 60% of that money, which paid for the rental car, basically. I was not expecting it at all. I was expecting to lose over $2000 on this tour, and ended up losing a lot less.

Sound Stage: What did the final numbers for the tour look like? 

Katie: I put around $2500 into the tour when all things were said and done. But the nice surprise about our tickets and merch sales was that we were able to cover most of our expenses on the road, like food and gas, with what we took home from the show, and because of D.C., we were even able to cover our rental car, which was our biggest singular expense. So in the end, including our cuts of ticket and merch sales, I think I lost a little over $600, and then tolls added another $200. That put us about $800 in the red and means we made enough money to cover almost 2/3 of expenses. Definitely in the red, but it could’ve been worse.

Sound Stage: What’s the biggest lesson you’ll take away from this?

Katie: Do not get caught up in who's at your show or how many people are there. Ignore the metrics of playing shows, and just enjoy the company of the people that you're with and the people that you get to play for. Because I do believe the band I play with is a very special group of people, some of my best friends. I think on this tour, I sort of realized, “Oh my gosh, I get to play with these guys all the time.” And getting to travel the country with you all, some of my closest friends, was really special. I realized literally nothing else matters. Having that realization changed everything, too. Thinking about the trajectory of my career and what's important to me… and at the end of the day, it's just playing with the people that I want to play with. 
And getting to spend as much time with them and play as much music as possible. I left this tour feeling much more connected and closer to the group, and that’s what matters.

Sound Stage: What a lovely note to end on.. Thank you so much for sitting down with me today, Katie. This touring experience was really special, and I’m thankful we could discuss it in depth. I can’t wait to see what you do next . 

Katie: Thanks again for reaching out! I’m sure we’ll talk soon. 

Katie Wheeler performs under the name “ktwheels” in Chicago, and her band is filled out by Alvin Santner (guitar), Matt McCarthy (bass), and Tommy Sagins (drums), with River Epperson (photo/video) joining on the road. Her two most recent singles, “Mechanical Being” and “Does She Know,” are available to buy and stream on every online platform, as well as her debut EP, “Junk Drawer.” You can catch ktwheels opening for Buffchick in Chicago at Martyrs’ on May 29, and you can keep up with the project at www.ktwheels.com or @ktwheelsmusic on social media platforms.